From a foothill-top in Mountain Park Ranch, overlooking Lakewood and the Gila River Indian Community, this 360 degree panorama shows only a portion of Phoenix's 35 sq. mile Ahwatukee Foothills Village that has grown to over 85,000 in population. I moved to Lakewood 23 years ago when it was a new development within the village and much of the land was in its natural state like this hillside with saguaro, cholla and barrel cactus and lots of creosote bushes. Two lakes had been carved out of a shallow, sloping alluvial plain in the center of the one mile square bounded by Chandler Blvd., 32nd St., 40th St., and Pecos Rd.

Visibility is limited due to the morning haze that obscures the mountain peaks far off to the south near Tucson, but still visible are the McDowell, Superstition and Santan Mountains along with the distinctive Four Peaks nearly 50 miles to the east. This pano was taken with a modified GigaPan Epic and a Canon T2i with a 300mm lens. 1859 17.9 Mpx photos were captured on a single set of AA batteries, Canon T2i battery and a 16GB SDHC flash card over a period of 1 hour and 40 minutes. This resulted in my largest GigaPan to date, 12.59 giga-pixels.